Greater New Orleans

Jefferson Parish President John Young has asked Gov. Bobby Jindal to veto legislation that would kill an environmental damages lawsuit filed against 97 energy companies by the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East.
(NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)

"Lawyers representing local governments in the Macondo well blowout ('BP') advise that this bill poses a risk to local government claims under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990," Young said in a letter sent to Jindal on Thursday. "Specifically, the retroactivity provisions may adversely impact BP litigation. In additon, the preemption language limits local governments' rights of recovery for future spills within the Coastal Zone."

But in a statement also issued late Thursday, Jindal again indicated he plans to sign the controversial legislation.

"We don't want to do anything to impede the rights of our people to pursue BP claims," Jindal said in the statement. "Our attorneys are comfortable with the legislation and that it has no impact on BP litigation. All BP claims arise out of an event that happened in federal waters outside the purview of this legislation. For this reason, BP claims plainly are not impacted by the bill."

Senate Bill 469, sponsored by Sens. Bret Allain, R-Jennings, and Robert Adley, R-Benton, prohibits any state or local government agency other than the Department of Natural Resources, attorney general or district attorneys for individual parishes, from taking actions to enforce federal or state permits in coastal area.

The legislation was aimed at killing the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authorty-East's July 2013 lawsuit against 97 oil, gas and pipeline companies, which demanded the energy companies either repair damage caused by their actions to wetlands and the environment or compensate the levee authority for damages that couldn't be restored.

But in a series of amendments, the bill was changed to also prohibit other local government agencies from enforcing state permitting laws.

The concerns raised by Young mirror those listed in a letter sent Jindal last Friday and re-sent on Wednesday by a number of law professors at universities across the United States that the bill could both retroactively kill attempts by local governmental agencies to recover lost tax revenue and to require environmental repairs caused by the BP oil spill, as well as other environmental claims resulting from past actions of energy companies causing pollution. On Wednesday, 23 professors had signed the letter, but by late Thursday, 81 law professors had signed the letter.

In his letter, Young agreed with Jindal's contention that "businesses choosing to invest in our state must be protected from the impacts of frivolous litigation."

But he said that despite "all good efforts and intentions" during the legislative session that ended Monday to add language to the bill to preserve the legal rights of local governments, "there remains substantial disagreement amongst legal scholars regarding the meaning and impact of this legislation. Such confusion so early in the life of this legislation justifies further legislative analysis in order to avoid any unintended consequences.

"On behalf of the citizens of Jefferson Parish, I respectfully request that you veto SB469 so as to allow for the opportunity to enact more precise and focused legislation without the risk of unintended consequences," Young said.

Young's letter to Jindal comes on the same day that the New Orleans City Council also asked Jindal to veto the bill, and two days after Attorney General Buddy Caldwell also recommended the legislation be vetoed because of concerns it could prohibit both state and local government agencies from filing damages lawsuits against energy companies.